"The goal is 20,000 signatures and to replace Senator Holperin," Kim Simac, the person leading recall effort, told CBN News.

"I mean we need someone to represent us with dignity and simply getting up and running out of the state when the going gets tough is very embarrassing for us people up here in the district," she said.

Fourteen Wisconsin Democratic senators have been hiding in an undisclosed location across the state line in Illinois.

Meanwhile, their Republican colleagues have pressed forward with the debate on the anti-union bill, stretching through its third day of debate in the state Assembly.

Republicans maintain the measures would limit spending by handing government entities more flexibility in dealing with workers. But Democrats and their union allies see the bills as a full-out attack designed to cripple union fundraising for Democrats.

The battle over labor rights has been heating up across the country as new Republican majorities tackle budget woes in several states.